The present invention relates generally to agricultural machinery and, more particularly, to improvements to balers for harvested crops.
Round balers have a baling chamber defined by baling rollers. An opening adjacent the baling chamber directs a web of wrapping material toward the baling chamber for wrapping the bale. The web of wrapping material is provided in a cylindrical roll and stored in an unwind station on the baler adjacent the baling chamber. Such unwind stations may be of any type well known in the art, from where the web material is pulled off a roll. The roll may be freely supported at the unwind station or by means of a device inserted at the ends, which allows the roll to rotate.
Placement of the roll of wrapping material into the unwind station is presently done exclusively by hand, whereby the baler must be climbed upon via raised foot-steps. Depending on the location of the baler's unwind station, a lot of physical strength is required because the roll of wrapping material weighs approximately 40 kg. or 88 lbs.
It would be advantageous to provide an arrangement which overcomes the deficiencies described above.
An objective of this invention is to provide a device for aiding the loading of a roll of wrapping material into the unwind station. Another object is to provide a device which is also usable for storing a roll of wrapping material. Still another object of the invention is to provide a device which is movable from a storage position to a transfer position for loading the unwind station.